Nvidia Shield handheld gaming device unveiled

Nvidia has taken the wraps off “Project Shield”, a handheld gaming device powered by its new Tegra 4 processor capable of powering 4K video and streaming PC games.

With the next generation of consoles just around the corner, Nvidia has shot out of left field and dropped a bombshell – the new Nvidia Shield. The Shield features a 5-inch, 1,280 x 720 multitouch display. It will be the first Tegra 4 device and offer 38 watt hours of batteries for up to 24 hours of high definition video. Nvidia touted a console-grade controller on the device. The Shield is designed to be as small as possible, so it’s roughly the size of standalone controllers. I like the design of the controller with a very strong Xbox feel to it (especially with the coloured A,B,X,Y buttons).

At it’s heart the Shield is a pure Android device with no skin on top of it, but pressing a “shield” button drops it into a game environment. It doesn’t have any proprietary interfaces, with HDMI, micro-USB, microSD slot, 3.5mm audio jack.

Nvidia CEO Jen-sun Huang also called the device a set-top box, as he demonstrated the multimedia capabilities. He showed off what he believes is the first 4K video coming off a mobile device. He also demonstrated multiplayer functionality between devices. Project Shield will also be able to stream games from PCs with GeForce 600 GTX GPUs and it is also integrated with Steam Big Picture, which makes a lot of sense!

Shield is slated for a Q2 release, according to Nvidia. It’s based on Android Jelly Bean and current development units are Wi-Fi only.